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From understanding others' needs to prosocial action: Motor and social abilities promote infants' helping

Moritz Köster1,2,3, Shoji Itakura3, Masaki Omori3

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.

Developmental Science
|February 2, 2019
PubMed

Insights

Infants understand others' needs early on, but helping behavior emerges later. Motor and social skills are key for this development, linking understanding to action and supporting prosocial development.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Cognitive Science
  • Infant Behavior

Background:

  • Early prosocial behavior in infants is a key area of developmental research.
  • Understanding the factors that contribute to the emergence of helping behavior is crucial for understanding social development.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relationship between infants' understanding of others' needs and their helping behavior.
  • To examine the role of motor and social competencies in mediating this relationship.
  • To provide evidence for the prosocial nature of early helping behavior.

Main Methods:

  • Assessed understanding of others' needs using an eye-tracking paradigm.
  • Measured helping behavior in 10- and 16-month-old infants.
  • Evaluated fine motor, gross motor, and social interaction skills in 16-month-olds.

Main Results:

  • Infants demonstrated an understanding of others' needs at 10 months.
  • Fine motor and social interaction skills moderated the link between understanding needs and helping behavior at 16 months.
  • Motor and social skills independently predicted early helping behavior.

Conclusions:

  • Infants' helping behavior is a complex developmental outcome influenced by both cognitive understanding and motor/social skills.
  • The findings support the view that early helping behavior is rooted in prosocial motivations.
  • This study provides the first evidence linking infants' understanding of needs to their helping actions.

Keywords:
helping behaviormotor developmentsocial interactionunderstanding others' needs

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